Wednesday, October 29, 2008

More on WoW zombies

Just a short note that yesterday the Lich King invasion world event evolved only slightly, by increasing the number of attacks from the necropolises. Which is good news, because previously there weren't enough undead to go around, and now it was much easier to get those quests done and collect enough necrotic runes to buy some nice epic pieces and fun, but useless, trinkets. Although I dislike the term "welfare epics", it has to be noticed that you can get a set of 4 epic pieces, including set bonus, having not more than 1 hour and 2 friends to help you kill the elite.

The discussion of whether that world event was a good idea rages on. The funniest contribution comes from the WoW forums, of all places, where somebody wrote a letter from the Lich King:

"My deepest apologies.

It is my understanding that my invading forces, in their attempts to besiege your cities and snuff out all life on Azeroth, have inconvenienced the activities of common civilians. In the future, I will ensure that your commanding officers are informed well in advance of planned invasion times so that they may properly fortify themselves.

I have also looked into the issue of my plague being too quick in its purpose and too difficult to cure. Please be reassured that I have taken the matter up personally with my top necromancers and that any further incarnations of said plague should be only a slight challenge for your natural immune systems to overcome. Please forward any additional complaints to either Kel’thuzad or Anub’arak.

Regards, the Lich King Arthas."

Kudos to Scott Jennings for delving deep enough into the abyss of the WoW forums to find this gem. Another unexpected highlight in the discussion comes from Kill Ten Rats, where Dragon discusses in detail the phases of the zombie invasion, and its implications. Both the parody letter and Dragon's analysis show the fundamental problem of it being impossible to have a world-changing dynamic event (which so many people were shouting for) without inconveniencing some people in their daily routine.

The current phase, in which attacks happen in places like Azshara, where otherwise few people venture, and fighting the attacks nets you phat rewards is at the same time much more uncontroversial, and more boring. I have to keep an eye on WoWInsider, just so I don't miss one of the phases of the event. The zombie infection was much harder to miss, and therefore made much more of an impact than just adding a few more mobs with more loot. If we want MMORPGs to break out of their static shell, we have to allow those changes to affect us in sometimes negative ways. And with the event only lasting a few days, there really wasn't all that much to complain about.